Barca banking on another rousing recovery
TURIN, Italy — Barcelona’s Champions League bid hit the rocks for the second time, but coach Luis Enrique is hopeful of another epic salvage operation after a 3-0 Champions League quarterfinal defeat to Juventus on Tuesday.
“Until tomorrow, I don’t even want to think about how we can come back from this,” Enrique raged after Tuesday’s first-leg loss in Turin where Argentina forward Paulo Dybala fired the hosts into a 2-0 lead by the 22nd minute.
Italy international centerback Giorgio Chiellini, famously bitten by Barca’s Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez at the 2014 World Cup, headed home Juve’s third in the 55th minute to wrap up victory.
“If we get our act together, we can put four goals past anybody,” said Enrique.
“But right now, I’m so angry I don’t even want to think about it.”
Juventus, humbled 3-1 by the Spanish giant in the 2015 final, was a deserved winner on the night and while Enrique was quick to berate his misfiring side, he offered plaudits to counterpart Massimiliano Allegri.
“I don’t know if I can see the difference between this Juventus side and the one we beat in 2015. But this is a great looking Juve team that played a really top-quality game tonight,” he said.
“They played with great intensity and put a lot of pressure on us.”
He even had a kind word for Dani Alves, despite the rightback’s stinging attack on his ex-club’s “false and ungrateful” board two months ago.
“Dani Alves is still a great player who is still very competitive,” Enrique said. “I can only congratulate him on his performance.”
Nou guarantees
Juventus, crowned European champion twice and a runner-up six times, look to have one foot in the last four of the competition a year after its last-16 elimination to Bayern Munich.
But despite seeing Dybala eclipse illustrious compatriot Lionel Messi and Juventus underline its credentials in style, Allegri was not getting carried away.
Barcelona looked down and out in Paris following a 4-0 reverse to Paris Saint-Germain in February. But in the second leg at Camp Nou, the Catalans produced a stunning comeback to rout Unai Emery’s side 6-1 and reach the last eight.
“It isn’t easy overcoming a team like Barcelona, but we also dug deep to keep a clean sheet. That was fundamental for us,” said Allegri, whose side is on track for a record sixth straight Serie A title and a third consecutive league and Cup double.
“But we have to remain humble, keep our heads down and keep working. PSG scored four, and look what happened.”
Man-of-the-match Dybala concurred but the former Palermo striker couldn’t contain his joy after one of his “greatest nights”.
Dybala’s silky skills and fancy footwork often lead to comparisons with five-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi, whom he grew up admiring from afar.
Messi was Barca’s main attacking threat on the night, but Dybala stole the show.
And the 23-year-old called for Juve to make his contribution count.
“It’s one of my greatest nights in football. Let’s not ruin it now,” said Dybala, who joined the Turin giant from Sicilian side Palermo for over $34 million in June 2015.
“I’ve dreamed of nights like this since I was a kid.
“As a team, we’re in a really positive period, we have belief in ourselves and that is really important in terms of our objectives.
“We can’t relax too much, because we’ve yet to visit Camp Nou and it will be difficult.
“But we’re also a top side, and tonight we showed how much we want this.”
Three suicide bombers targeted Paris’ Stade de France on Nov 13, 2015 as France hosted Germany in a soccer friendly on a night the city was rocked by a series of deadly attacks. One man was killed by a blast outside the stadium. The attacks left 130 dead.
Revellers were enjoying a rock concert during the Olympic Games at Atlanta’s Centennial Park when a pipe bomb exploded in the early hours of July 27, 1996, killing two people and injuring more than 100. A US extremist was jailed for the attack.
AFP
Mario Mandzukic (left) fends off Barcelona's Lionel Messi to win possession during the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal at Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy, on Tuesday. Juve won 3-0.
Atlanta pipe bomb
Alex Teixeira, another expensive Brazilian import, fared much better as he scored a goal and set up the other two in Jiangsu Suning’s 3-0 victory over Japan’s Gamba Osaka.
Teixeira slammed in a third-minute opener when he robbed Japan international Yasuhito Endo and surged forward before blasting his shot past Masaaki Higashiguchi.
The former Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder teed up compatriot Ramires four minutes later with a dangerous ball into the box which the ex-Chelsea star steered past Higashiguchi.
Teixeira rounded out his evening just before halftime with a pinpoint freekick onto the head of defender Hong Jeong-Ho, who made it 3-0 as Jiangsu stayed top of Group H with 12 points from four games.
Below them in the same group, Australian side Adelaide United resurrected its hopes of reaching the last 16 with a 3-1 away win over South Koreans Jeju United to climb off the bottom of the standings.
And in Group F, last year’s semifinalist FC Seoul kept its campaign alive with a 3-2 victory over 2014 champion Western Sydney Wanderers, courtesy of a double from Dejan Damjanovic.
“I’m really happy and finally we won,” Montenegrin striker Damjanovic said of his team’s first win of the campaign.
“I am 36 soon and I came to Korea to finish my career, but you never know. My contract finishes in November but my first option is Seoul.”